outside the beltway
most of the world is, thankfully
As you know, I have written hundreds of thousands of characters since starting this substack in early November 2022 in about 657 posts. I read each and every comment you all send, I wonder with why people drop though I am ecstatic by each individual who joins for any amount of time, and I enjoy the conversation a great deal.
But, I am keenly sensitive to this reminder provided by a persistent friend and reader.
“We talked before but the rhythm of life outside DC is so different and I contend still largely discounted. Yes. There is a presidential election. And yes there is high consequence to congressional selections, but at the Cathalamet marina, Astoria's Mo's fish restaurant, and Warrenton's Costco people were sure more interested in sharing the day. Enjoying each other's company. And taking the opportunity to make today just a little better than the day before. Too bad the politicians and elected officials can't tap into that more.”
This is truth in a couple of sentences as was a training video clip I heard in the summer of 1970 at the State Department as we prepared for our departure to Southeast Asia. That clip, clearly attempting to be humourous, but so crucial to how we don’t grasp the world, said “Well, 95% of the world is foreigners.” Yes but Yanks tend to center ourselves always so the idea that everyone else is foreign or different from our '“norm” is so naïve but fundamentally us. In short, it profoundly affected me because, even 50 years ago, I figured others found our attitude offensive.
The above quote I received over the weekend reminds us inside the Beltway to think beyond our narrow perspective on politics and “who is up versus who is down”. Long time Beltway bruisers (perhaps the most appropriate to describe the wear and tear of the bloody traffic) need recognize other perspectives— and lack of interest in some of the Byzantine Beltway chatter that is actually irrelevant fifty, much less twenty-five hundred miles away.
So, what are you doing as the summer begins fading into the longer evenings and shorter days? What is important in your community to chase the Veep and the FPOTUS off the front page of the local paper? What will your community be addressing long after people relegate this election to the dustbin of experiences?
What is important that the Beltway Bruisers are ignoring, perhaps even at our peril?what do YOU wish Washingtonians cared about instead of the usual?
I genuinely want to hear from you.
Thank you for exchanging your valuable time in exchange for this column, today or any other day.Thanks especially to the readers who subscribe and provide me that hoped for feedback.
I imagine these ducks don’t care about much except staying out of my way as we walk. That probably echoes in wide swathes of the world but perhaps not.
Be well and be safe, in any case. FIN
If you simply allowed the media to paint our Nation's current portrait, we're all destined to self-destruction at any given moment. It's very rare to get a "good news story" from...the news. To your point, what happens inside the beltway does impact all of us to some degree as down-stream recipients of decisions (good and bad). But my experiences related to our neighborhood, local grocery store, restaurant, bar, etc., all involve the daily stuff that is going on right around us. There is definitely concern with increased prices in goods and services...everything seems to cost more these days no matter what it is. And some restaurant servers, bar tenders and clerks in the stores do talk about their struggles to make ends meet. But by far the biggest topics are weather (complaints when it's too hot, too cold, too windy, not enough rain, too much rain); traffic and construction (how hard it is to get places due to both); airline travel (the huge increase in domestic ticket prices - normally comes up when talking about visiting family in other parts of the country) and to a much lesser degree, politics.
Most have chosen their sides and no amount of media blitz, interviews (or lack thereof), rallies, town halls, debates, clear hypocrisy, abhorrent behavior, flat-out lies, flip-flopping or legal troubles will change their minds. I have no factual data to back up my belief that probably less than 1% of neighbors who do want to engage in political discussions have actually done research on the various issues. Most are simply regurgitating what they see / hear on their chosen media platform...and they throw those spin-lines out as gospel. It's easier to not even enter into those conversations as no amount of factual data will change anyone's mind at this point. It's much more satisfying to agree that it's too hot, too cold, too windy, too much traffic, and too hard to get to places due to construction. On those topics, we all get along just fine.